OK, maybe not 100, but it sure feels like it.

I wouldn't be so down and out about the whole process if there was any hope of me getting any of these jobs, but I'm thinking the ``desired experience'' is a tad out of reach.

How am I meant to get experience when no one will hire me without experience?

University won't be over for another few years and working all weekend every weekend is really starting to take its toll. Two days with four hours' sleep would get to anyone.

So I figure I should get a job that I'm passionate about, where I won't mind working longer hours and won't have to travel halfway across the continent to get to.

I scour the online career sites, I check all the local papers and I ask around and do all that, but somehow despite all of this preparation I just know that I will walk into some restaurant next week and say: ``Hi, I can make coffee and smile a lot. Pay me to serve food for you, please.''

I shouldn't give up. I have a European holiday and a 21st birthday party and some overpriced petrol to pay for, right?

I could easily just sit back, work the minimal hours I currently work in my two jobs, have no savings account and just spend all my remaining cash on cheap shoes and PVC handbags. But I cannot justify doing this. I am dying to work-work-work, get money and go and live my life properly. Travel, fun, cars, phone bills: real life.

I have been talking about money and the shortage of it for the past few weeks, so I must be getting old and boring. But it's a massive problem for young people everywhere.

The job market has become so complex that it seems so hard to break into it without having specialised degrees, diplomas and trades or a minimum of two years' experience - not including volunteer work.

How can't you give up hope?